R. Montgomery, 78, lawyer in tobacco industry case
NEW YORK - Robert Montgomery, a lawyer who marshaled a silvery Southern drawl and incisive strategy to win 65 settlements of $1 million or more, including billions from the tobacco industry awarded to Florida in 1997, died Aug. 3 in Rochester, Minn. He was 78.
The death, at the Mayo Clinic, was confirmed by his lawyer, Bill Smith, who said that no cause had been determined.
Mr. Montgomery, who lived and practiced in Palm Beach, Fla., drew the most notice as Florida's lead lawyer in forcing the tobacco industry to agree to pay $11.3 billion to recover Medicaid expenses for smoking-related diseases.
He then received almost as much attention for suing the state, accusing it of cheating him out of his fee, more than $200 million. Known for his elegant cars and $2,500 Brioni suits, Mr. Montgomery arrived at court to contest his compensation in a two-toned
Mr. Montgomery had many other high-profile cases, involving personal injuries, divorces, and his own sometimes idiosyncratic crusades.
He won an undisclosed settlement for Kimberly Bergalis, a Florida woman who contracted AIDS from her dentist. Mr. Montgomery helped the third wife of Henry Ford II, Kathleen DuRoss Ford, win an estate settlement from Ford family members of $10.5 million a year after Ford's death. And he represented Burt Reynolds in his divorce from Loni Anderson.
Mr. Montgomery argued for the families of four American churchwomen who had been raped and killed in El Salvador in 1980. In the 2000 civil case, he sought millions of dollars from two former top Salvadoran military leaders, but lost in a jury trial in federal court.
In 2005, Mr. Montgomery sued for $24 million the distributor of a handgun used by a middle school student to kill a teacher and won a jury award of $1.2 million in a trial. It was the first verdict against the seller of a gun on the grounds that the gun lacked safety features to prevent its use by children. (The judge invalidated the verdict, and the boy's family lost on appeal.)
Montgomery represented Theresa LePore, the supervisor for elections for Palm Beach County, Fla., when she was being reviled and sued for the design of the county's "butterfly" ballot; it caused votes to be miscounted and played a key part in George W. Bush's 2000 election victory.
Mr. Montgomery, a Democrat, had just months earlier hosted a $10,000-a-plate dinner at his mansion for former Vice President Al Gore, Bush's opponent. He said he took the case of a woman despised by Democrats to support LePore, a local person he had known for years.
He leaves his wife, the former Mary Lemerle McKenzie; and his daughter , Courtnay.
